Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Winter/ Summer Solstice and a Happy Holiday Season. In November we welcomed our new drummer from Chicago - the amazing Cam Lewis, who we met earlier this year in Pensacola Beach, Florida. I prophetically told Cam at the time that we would be working together someday! Funny how things turn out. We had a fabulous acoustic show at Trinity House in Livonia, Michigan, followed by the amazing and very wild Mash Bar in Ann Arbor and the fabulous Celtic Ray in Lexington over Thanksgiving weekend.

In early December we headed out on tour to The Alamo in Springfield, Illinois. The next day Bobbi and I presented Australian Didge-ucation to the beautiful children of Montessori's Children's House. Afterwards we visited the Illinois State Museum's Research and Collections Center. Curators: Terrance J Martin and Jonathan E. Reyman gave us a tour of an ancient Australian Aboriginal collection from the 1800s, Western Australia. There were ancient didgeridoos, shields, spears, boomerangs, jewelry plus more. It was an amazing collection of artifacts. The plan is to return the collection to Canberra, Australia. We then headed south to Brackins in Maryville, Tennessee which was a fun show. Then its was on to Charleston , South Carolina for Fiery Ron's Home Team BBQ. We had a great show and the BBQ was fabulous.

Unfortunately early on Saturday December 6th my van was broken into at The Sleep Inn in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. The front passenger window was smashed and the door was damaged. Mike's Gibson Les Paul guitar and Jame's 5 string Fender Jazz Bass guitar were stolen. The thief also tried to get into the back of the van but was unable to. Two other cars were also broken into. I made a police report and have been checking Craig' s list, music stores, pawn shops- you name it, since. Such a horrible thing to happen. Our insurance covered the damage to the van but not the guitars. We had the window taped up with plastic so we could make our show at Darwins in Marietta, Georgia. Two wonderful local musicians loaned us their guitars for the evening. Then the next week our good buddy Steve Arvey loaned us two guitars to finish the rest of the tour to Florida. A big thank you to these generous musicians and also to our friends and fans for donating some cash to Mike and James to help them replace their stolen guitars.

Bobbi and I finished the year with an Australian Didge-ucation presentation at the JVS in Detroit for the PTS veterans. These programs put together by the JVS really do work. One veteran in particular was so sad, isolated, depressed and defensive when we met him earlier in the year. We were astounded by this his beautiful smiling face this time around. He had been transformed. Bobbi told Psychosocial Specialist Donna Rhoades that she had given back this man's humanity. It was so beautiful to see. Thank you all for sharing this journey with Bobbi, my band "Midwest Kind" and me, this year. We truly appreciate your support and love.

May 2015 best a year of peace, prosperity, joy and love for us all. See you out on the road next year!